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VICTOR ORTA ON YUSUKE IDEGUCHI SIGNING

Leeds United Director of Football Victor Orta has expressed his delight at the signing of Yusuke Ideguchi from Gamba Osaka.

The Whites completed the signing of the 21-year-old Japanese international on Tuesday after he successfully passed a medical.

Speaking to LeedsUnited.com, Orta said: “Yosuke is a dynamic midfielder with good technical ability and excellent movement.

“He is a traditional box to box player who is as comfortable winning balls as he is arriving to score goals.

“He has the stamina and the intelligence to be successful in England – and to be an international footballer at 21 years of age, shows his promise.”

Explaining the rationale behind signing Ideguchi and immediately loaning the midfielder out to Cultural Leonesa, Orta said: “We chose this moment to sign Yosuke because if he goes to the World Cup and does as well as we believe he can, then the competition for his signature would have been much higher.

“It is important that we anticipate the right moment to sign a player, we felt that waiting another six months could have been a risk – as we knew approaches had already been made by clubs in France and Germany and we have taken our opportunity.

“Yosuke has been in pre-season as the Japanese league ended in December and at this moment in time we already have good competition for places in our midfield.

“We have seen good performances from Eunan O’Kane, Ronaldo Vieira and Kalvin Phillips, with Mateuz Klich also available for selection – therefore it might be hard for Yosuke to get the game time he needs in the build up to the World Cup.

“The Segunda Division in Spain is physical like the Championship and I believe that players can adapt to life in the Championship a little easier if they have experienced this league in Spain, as we have seen with Samuel Saiz.”